The black American male is known to have a shorter life expectancy than black females or whites of either sex. Vital statistics show that the differences are accounted for primarily by elevated rates of accidents, homicide, and suicide. The evidence suggests that the trend of elevated mortality from such causes is continuing -- the life expectancy of black males actually declined during the decade 1959-60 to 1969-70. The need to reverse this trend is clear. Presently vital statistics are the only widely available data from which the ramifications of these facts can be studied. But these statistics are inadequate for the development of meaningful intervention strategies aimed at prolonging the life expectancy of black males. The present study is designed to produce, through social survey techniques, a profile of the young black male at high risk to lower life expectancy. In addition, it convenes a panel of social policy makers in an attempt to utilize the survey findings to develop intervention strategies for reducing not only the mortality rates, but also the deleterious social and economic consequences of these early deaths. The population for this two-year study is a random sample of 200 young black men selected from households in majority black census tracts in Nashville, Tennessee, plus 150 young black men from each of two groups hypothesized to be similar to those who die young: Victims of physical assaults (identified in emergency rooms) and felons convicted for homicide (on the theory that frequently they are like their victims). All 500 will be given psychological tests and a social and developmental questionnaire. BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES: Gorwitz, K., and R. Dennis, "On the Decrease in the Life Expectancy of Black Males in Michigan," Public Health Reports, March-April, 1976, Vol. 91, No. 2, pp. 414-416. Dennis, R., and A. Kirk, "The Use of Crisis Centers by the Black Population," Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 101-105, Summer, 1976.